Nutritional status of substance abusers with mandible fractures

Purpose: The purposes of this study were 1) to assess the validity of patie nt self-report in identifying illegal substance abuse and 2) to identify nu tritional deficiencies in substance abusers presenting for treatment of man dible fractures. Patients and Methods: To address the research purposes, a prospective cohor t study was conducted Of patients presenting for treatment of mandible frac tures. A urine drug screen was used to determine the validity of patient se lf-report of substance abuse. For purposes of assessing nutritional status, 2 categories of substance abusers were identified: illegal and legal (alco hol). The nutritional status was measured using various laboratory markers. Results: The sample was composed of 93 subjects. Urine:drug studies were av ailable for 32 patients. Of the 22 patients who denied illegal drug use, 12 (55%) had a positive drug screen. Of the 10 patients reporting a positive history of illicit drug use, 7 (70%) had a positive urine drug screen (P =. 47). A positive correlation was found between alcohol exposure and serum as partate aminotransferase, mean corpuscular volume, and lactate dehydrogenas e. Positive drug screens also were associated with increased serum ferritin levels. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that patient self-report of illicit drug use may be unreliable. The findings also suggest that legal an d illegal substance abusers presenting for treatment of mandible fractures have minimal nutritional deficiencies.